Steven Snyder, Freelance Contributor

(out of four)

Jesse says he enjoys getting older because it feels more “immediate,” like he is living inside each moment and able to appreciate life more as it happens.

“Before Sunset” is better than its 1995 predecessor, “Before Sunrise,” and stands apart as one of the year’s very best films for much the same reason.

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Preview: 'Before Sunset'

“Sunrise” followed Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) over the course of a single night, from strangers on a train through the streets of a moonlit Vienna to a train platform where, after only a few hours of instant connection and affection, they promise to meet again after six months.

In “Before Sunset” it has been nine years since their parting when they reunite in a Parisian book shop. Jesse is touring the world on a book tour, touting a book he wrote about that very night in Vienna so long ago. Celine is now an environmental activist living in Paris. At first glance they are happy to see each other, although their excitement is strangely muted and detached.

For the next 80 minutes, returning director Richard Linklater (“School of Rock”) explores the complexity of that mixed response, gingerly probing and exposing why these characters are both overjoyed to be back with the person they so passionately loved, but also reserved and restrained, afraid to show their true colors.

The story, for all practical purposes, is told in real time, the couple strolling around Paris as Jesse gets ready to leave for the airport. He has an hour, and that is all. What’s remarkable about the film is how dense that hour feels and how strongly its final moments resonate. Here is a romance that does not ask us to assume or demand that we accept, but in rather subdued fashion allows us to watch and decide for ourselves. These two characters just click, and their love is evident in their glances, gestures, mannerisms and skillful tiptoeing around the subjects that they want to talk about most.

Its structure is reminiscent of 1981’s groundbreaking “My Dinner With Andre,” which was solely about a dinner conversation between two fascinating friends. In “Before Sunset,” Jesse and Celine walk and they talk, and that is all. There is no story beyond their words and no drama beyond that of their emotions and revelations.

There are only three set pieces of consequence: A coffee shop, a boat and an apartment, Jesse and Celine spending the majority of their time wandering aimlessly through the city. And something is more sincere in their interactions this time around. In “Before Sunrise,” the two adventurers kept finding unique events and characters that tore at the reality of their encounter. Here in “Sunset,” there are no such distractions, and they gradually become very real people in a believable world, with genuine insecurities, fears and hopes.

As Jesse and Celine, Hawke and Delpy are exceptional. In fact, to compliment their “performances” is to tarnish what they have accomplished here. The actors seemingly are the characters and vice versa, perhaps because this time they helped write the script, and it is their balancing of Jesse and Celine’s surface pleasantries with their hidden uncertainties that carries this simple film to profound heights.

Hawke played the cheerful American in “Sunrise,” but this time around he makes Jesse’s smile a bit more forced and his jolliness a bit more pained. Delpy was the aloof and neurotic love interest in the first film, but here she makes Celine slightly more defensive and cautious, her youthful idealism replaced with a fair share of disillusionment.

Linklater is more careful this time around to strip the choreographed beauty from his direction. Make no mistake, “Sunset’s” scenes and settings around Paris are more beautiful than ever, but there are none of the carefully-framed and carefully-lit portraits that felt forced in the first film. Linklater opts instead for deliciously long takes and simple tracking shots, emphasizing not the presentation but the idiosyncrasies of the characters and their conversation.

“Before Sunset” is the rare sequel that adds depth to its predecessor. Jesse and Celine’s first meeting was an idealistic story of fleeting romance. “Sunset’s” meeting, however, is a tale of regret and nostalgia; a far deeper work of characters rediscovering an intimacy that has haunted their dreams and endured through the years. When their evasive conversations finally get to the heart of the matter, the film transcends Jesse, Celine or Paris and really becomes a universal questioning of life’s purpose: Are we living the lives that we were meant to live?

However, “Before Sunset” is not a heavy movie. It is a character-rich, dialogue-driven delight in which we accompany these two remarkable people during one sunny afternoon in Paris and, occasionally, are removed from their conversation long enough to realize just how beautiful they, their connection and their flaws really are.

The deeper issues of destiny, love and regret do not detract from this affection, but rather make it more meaningful, and immediate.